Risen 3 Titan Lords Review

The Risen franchise is back, with high claims from the publishers Deep Silver, with one main emphasis ‘Going back to its roots’ by taking the best elements of Risen 1 and 2 and the Gothic Franchise, mixing them up and launching their new game Risen 3 Titan Lords from Piranha Bytes. Can Deep Silver and Piranha Bytes pull out all the stops this time and create an epic RPG, to make the fans of the franchise happy, or will it simply be just another addition to add to my RPG collection when I play once and move on the next RPG release.

The game starts off where Assassins Creed IV ends, well at least that is what the start of the game reminds me of, as your nameless character starts off as a pirate on the high seas battling what looks like demons from hell. During these battle scenes you learn the basic combat controls as well as dodging, health potion consumption, jumping and parry.

After this short and sweet high seas battle, your ship drops anchor and you and Patty ‘A big breasted your lady’ land on Crab Island, with my goal, find the treasure and become rich. Plans never go as you wish, and this is the same here, as shortly after landing a Demon Gate opens right in front of you and Patty, you are attacked by Demons (Shadows). With the treasure being in the same direction as the spawn of the gate, you and Patty has no other choice, enter and explore this unknown tunnel. Leading down a dark and disturbing underground area, leads to a Portal, a portal that leads where? You will soon find out, as from the portal appears a very disturbing figure, that takes your life, but leaves Patty to deal with the Consequences.

Patty says her goodbyes, with no emotion shown on her face, not even a tear is shed, but she does cry verbally, this is something I feel needs more attention, emotion on character faces and body’s make all the difference to how a gamer feels when talking and reacting to them.

Three weeks have passed since the day you were buried by Patty, your body rotting away, being eaten by the native carnivorous creatures. A shaman called Bones appears and awakens you from your eternal slumber, a Shaman who has been smoking way too much weed and has to be high as a kite. Bones gives you the low down of what has happened and what you need to do, then end you on your way to recover your soul, or spend eternity soulless and slowly rotting away.

A world designed by creative artists

Risen 3 Titan Lords is not a huge game, neither is it a short game, it has around twenty plus hours, set across multiple islands and many quests. All the lands, temples, caves and other areas have been Meticulously crafted by the artists at Piranha Bytes, you should take a bow here guys and girls you have done a great job. The creatures, boss and monsters have also been designed to a rather high standard, however this is let down by very poor human designs, emotions and reactions, which needs to be looked at for upcoming patch/DLC or Risen 4.

You will find Questing in Risen 3 Titan Lords, nothing short of the standard you would expect in any MMORPG or standard RPG, go kill this many enemies, go collect this type of quests, they are not good and they do get boring over time, but this is something we have come to expect from these types of games now. Why exploring and killing you might stumble upon a quest by accident, most of these quests would of been given to you by someone on the island, but hey you have already completed it for them, one less random kill quest to attend to.

An RPG needs a story and so far we know that Demon Gates have opened, the dead are swarming, you were an ex pirate, Patty has huge Boobs and right now you need to find a way to get back your soul. Now this is all good, end of the world type adventure, but the lackluster with all the AI Characters just does not match what is going on around them, there is simply no real emotion in any of their faces. Even when Patty says her Goodbyes to you, she cries, but on her face there is nothing to show for it, not even tears.

Attention to detail, please when creating any game, developers please take more time.

Combat in the game does get tedious and boring with just using sword and guns, so it’s good to see the use of magic available, which makes the game more fun and enjoyable. There is a flaw, though when doing close quarter combat, the knock back effect, which makes it almost impossible to get up and be ready to protect yourself before the enemy hits you again, this can lead to a loop, where your death is Guaranteed.

Now there is no real set classes in Risen 3 so you are free to play about and have fun creating a character that best suits your play style. You learn new spells and abilities through quests vendors, which you purchase once the faction or group sees you as no threat and you have helped through hard times. To level up your skills and abilities you will use Glory, which is gained by completing quests and killing enemies, just be mindful of where you spend, as the cost of upgrading does get more expensive. The glory systems is not too bad, and could do with some refinement to reduce the costs a little, but the system does work rather well.

As you gain more experience and levels, keep learning new skills through helping out factions and groups, things can and most likely for you, get easier, however the combat system does not suit everyone.

What’s lost is found and brought back, welcome back Factions.

Three factions have been brought in Risen 3 The Demon Hunters, Guardians and Voodoo Pirates each of them have their own unique benefits, depending on the faction of choice you align with, will ultimately alter way a quest ends. Choice as always, been paramount to the experience a gamer has, so decide where you stand and good luck.

The start is sometimes tricky

Risen 3 does give you a hard start to the game, learning to dodge and kite is paramount, almost reminded me of Dark Souls, just not as good. Dodging for some reason turns you super human, as you are invincible to all damage, you can also bring along Bones, who will, if he feels like it, heal you. I found myself a lot of the time learning to kite enemies around ad dodge as much as possible at the start, not something I wish to do, but was used to doing that’s to playing Dark Souls.

Personal thoughts

I personally think Piranha Bytes needs to spend more time with the game to refine the final elements add more emotion to the AI, refine the combat to make it more fun and engrossing while using a sword and pistol in close combat. The knockback loop effect needs to be looked at and improved, fix some issues that effect the camera, when it hides behind parts of the scene, that makes it hard to see what’s going on during conversations. Also, they really need to make humans feel more alive with real emotions when something is happening.

I have played Risen 1 & 2 and the Gothic series and with each and every title there has always been flaws in the games, Please Piranha Bytes spend more time with Q&A Testing, even bring out a Closed Beta and allow fans of the franchise to give you feedback, find the bugs and improve the game, take a look at the Kickstarter project Divinity: Original Sin.

The final opinion

The game is in no way un-playable,and for me it has become something that I have come to expect from the franchise, but have always wished for more. If you have played the others, then you know what to expect, if you are new be prepared, be very prepared, it’s fun and annoying all at once.

Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.